So far, Gov. Bobby Jindal's push for a $10 million New Orleans private school scholarship program has been low-key and scant on details. Jindal also has avoided one of the most politically combustible terms in education: voucher.

Backers of his bill say they are still finalizing the details. But followers of school choice issues nationwide say voucher proponents often try to keep early proposals small and quiet to avoid the kind of polarizing debate -- and crushing defeat -- that has followed many proposals for vouchers in other states over the past decade.

"In general, you don't use the word voucher if you want to get support. You use the word scholarship. Scholarship has a very friendly sound to it," said Henry Levin, the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education.

Andrew Rotherham, the co-director of Education Sector, an education policy think tank, said successful voucher proposals often come from a coalition of Republicans and minority Democrats. They might remain quiet initially, Rotherham speculates, because "once people realize the voucher movement is afoot, the big guns come out. It's an effort to delay that until (the backers) have all their ducks in a row."

Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, who will be the floor leader on the proposal, said the program would likely provide $5,300 to $5,500 scholarships for a couple thousand city public school students whose families likely could not otherwise afford private schools. The scholarships would probably initially target students in kindergarten through third grade. Badon said the scholarships would probably cover most or all of tuition for students.

"Otherwise, they could just stay in public schools for free," he said.

Students would have to take some type of standardized test once at the private school, he said.

Badon stood by the term scholarship as the most apt description, although he noted that students will not have to have superior grades or particular academic qualifications to participate.

"It will be open to any student," he said. "We don't want to cherry-pick."

However, House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, has described the proposal as a back-door voucher program.

Though she supported charter schools, she draws the line at directing public money to private schools. "There is a very clear line between changing governance structure .¤.¤. versus directing public dollars to private schools that are not subject to the same rules," she said.

Scholarship or voucher?

The word choice has not been lost on lawmakers in the early days of the three-month legislative session that began Monday.

In the ensuing debate, Davis refused to characterize the bill as a voucher proposal.

Similarly, the Jindal administration won't say whether it purposely avoided the at-times politically poisonous term, though Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers nonetheless echoed the argument most often used in support of vouchers: "Educational scholarships work to ensure that no child is stuck in their local failing school without any other opportunity for success."

The governor mentioned the proposal using broad strokes during his opening address Monday afternoon, but House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, said the administration hasn't approached him about the issue, although he supports the plan.

Although the nuances of the proposal have yet to be made known, and the shape and scope of the program could change during debate, it sounds like a small version of private school choice programs in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Washington.

In Milwaukee, for instance, the choice program provides as much as $6,500 per pupil for nearly 20,000 students to attend more than 100 different private schools, including parochial ones. But most voucher proposals in the past few years have been soundly defeated, most recently in Utah.

In a videotaped interview for the Education Writers Association last fall, Howard Fuller, the founder of the Black Alliance for Educational Options and a prominent supporter of vouchers, mentioned Louisiana and Missouri as two states in which voucherlike proposals could win support.

"If Bobby Jindal gets elected, I think we have a chance to do something in Louisiana," he said in that October interview.

Opponents pushed aside

Previous voucher proposals have not fared well in Louisiana, although some have come close to passing. In 2005, for instance, a plan to give some students in failing New Orleans elementary schools vouchers fell one vote short of clearing a Senate committee. At that time, though, the push had powerful opponents in Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the teachers unions. With a governor now who supports the concept and a weakened union in New Orleans, the opposition might have lost power.

The Legislature last month showed a willingness to plow new ground on education policy, using a special session to grant a partial personal income tax deduction to families paying private school tuition, costing a modest $23 million. And lawmakers added a deduction for public school uniforms to extend the benefits beyond parents of private school students. But the action nonetheless broke the seal of steering taxpayer money, directly or indirectly, to private schools.

Shree Medlock, the Louisiana coordinator of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, said her organization has been working on a "public education" campaign on school choice issues, as well as pushing to make sure the scholarship proposal is means-tested.

She also prefers the word scholarship.

"Scholarship is a better word to describe it," she said. "It sends a better message."

But Steve Monaghan, the top lobbyist for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said in a recent interview: "Let's call these things what they are."

Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or (504)¤826-3497.

Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow@timespicayune.com or (225)¤342-5590.